Midwest Dramatists Fundraiser

Tonight I attended a fundraiser at the Midwest Dramatists Center at the Writer's Place. I got to see a friend from college, the amazing Bree Elrod, and wrote a very small script that she got to act in. I had no idea that such a group existed to support local playwrights and writers. Currently, they are working on configuring the downstairs into a more workable blackbox space. I would highly consider giving to this organization as part of your end of year giving. For more information on the Midwest Dramatists Center, please visit www.midwestdramatists.org - It was well worth the $30 donation and local theatre lovers should attend if they have another!

The Oldest Boy by Sarah Ruhl - The Unicorn

For details on tickets, visit: https://www.facebook.com/events/796884210410704/ 

This is the opening show to the Unicorn's 42nd season. It is absolutely a risky and complicated show. The topic itself, motherhood and attachment parenting across cultures, is difficult to master. Add in puppetry, time jumps, and scene changes can leave this as one monumental task. 

Katie Kalahurka (mother) was brilliant. I adored her in last's season's Spinning Tree Production of Ghost Rider. It's amazing to see her capture humor and grief in one performance. She is probably my favorite local actor. 

Vi Tran (father) was masterful in his portrayal of one having to move between cultures. His character grew, changing his opinions and convictions, which could have easily been flat. He brought a depth and warmth to the character and turned the play in the direction it needed to go. 

Alex Espy (oldest boy) and Andi Meyer (puppeteer) were masterful and gorgeous in their flow, movements and stage presence. I can't describe too much of what they did because I want any new audience members to be surprised. 

Wai Yim (A Lama) was simply amazing and incandescent when he has scenes to play off of with Katie Kalahurka. It was akin to watching a perfectly timed tennis match. Every gesture and line had another volley back. Brilliant. Sharp direction by Cynthia Levin and impeccable acting. 

Thomas Tong (a monk) did a wonderful job of cluing the audience in to what was going on before it was revealed. I hope to see him grow in more roles in other productions. 

The technical aspects of the play were seamless and amazing. Sarah White (Scenic designer), TzuChing Chen (Asst Scenic designer), Paul Mesner (puppet direction), and Mike Horner (puppet design and construction) had a large challenge that they conquered wonderfully. As always, Tanya Brown (Stage Manager) was on point to make sure it ran on time. This was a preview night, and I'm usually prepared to be very gracious in my reviews with technical glitches. It was flawless. 

My only critique is the second act felt very rushed. There was a lot of great build up in the first act, backstory and emotional discussions. The second act felt like it was hurrying to tie everything in so quickly in a bow it felt unnatural. What it felt like was a major decision was almost made off stage. I can't tell you anything else without spoiling it for you, but that's my only negative in an absolutely gorgeous and well done work. It's honest, daring, difficult, gutsy and complicated with emotions and technical challenges. What a way to open a season. 

Tribes - Unicorn Theatre -

I experienced "Tribes" last night at the Unicorn Theatre. I went last night on purpose as it was going to be interpreted into sign language. 

As I was getting to my seat, the audience was filled with members of the Deaf community who were signing to each other across the theatre, gesturing and translating where to sit in order to see the interpreters. It was a partially quiet audience since half of us were speaking only in sign language. I felt like an outsider but I was ok feeling like an outsider. It was part of the point. 

Even though this show has four seasoned actors and two newcomers, all six of them balanced beautifully. They all were intense and quiet at the right times. The emotion and the fighting could have pushed to melodrama, but it felt authentic of a family who is dysfunctional in the way they show affection. Is it dysfunctional in the conventional way you think of abuse? No, it's more insidious, and it's brilliant and almost feels too long and uncomfortable as the backdrop to Billy's (Paul Ososki) silence at the top of the work. Christopher (David Fritts), Beth (Jan Rogge), Ruth (Nicole Marie Green), and Daniel (Jake Walker) are all yelling at each other, leaving us, and Billy, confused. Billy has been treated as not deaf, but in doing so, he's been left feeling isolated. The very thing the parents and family was striving to do had the opposite effect. 

Jan Rogge is brilliant. I can't say enough about her. She has to be sympathetic, angry, liked, hated, near tears, the whole gamut. It's easy to overlook her performance with the caustic lines that David Fritts delivers as the patriarch Christopher, but Jan is a jewel. Caught between these parents, Nicole has to play Ruth as sometimes in control and sometimes not. Though her part is smaller compared to the rest, she never lets you forget she's there. She shows us heartbreak in the midst of a dark comedic moment. 

I'm completely biased because Jake Walker is a friend of a friend, and an alum of Creed Rep. What he had to do as Daniel was absolutely dangerous. Whenever one interprets someone with a mental illness, there is the danger of becoming a caricature, or laughable. Jake's brilliance was the believability and the breath-holding moments of not knowing what Daniel was going to do next. Was he going to kill someone? Kill himself? Kill Billy, his anchor, if he tried to go off on his own? Drive Sylvia away if she tries to take Billy away? You just don't know what Daniel is going to do or say next, within the confines of a believable character in the midst of unbelievable physicality. As I told him, he killed it. Absolutely killed it. 

Among all this, Paul Ososki (Billy) and Lisa Lehnen (Sylvia) navigated their relationship with a new language. I think there was supposed to be screens on the stage that showed what was being signed but they malfunctioned. As someone who didn't know sign, I missed some of Sylvia's dialogue. I actually thought that was brilliant. Earlier, when half the audience was signing to one another, I was similarly lost. I wasn't in that tribe. This play wasn't for me, or about me. I was going to miss parts. 

As I was leaving the theatre, I patron behind me mumbled, "Well, I give that a C+, I couldn't understand what they were signing or saying half the time. I felt lost." I almost turned around to give him a hand gesture I knew he wouldn't misinterpret, but I kept it to myself. Really, I think that was the part of the play that is important, and having the subtitles break in the middle of the show was actually quite brilliant. The Deaf community doesn't have the benefit of subtitles and people patient enough to teach or show them what is being said. As a hearing person, lost at what is happening, we got a taste of our own medicine. 

This is an exceptional article which talks about the director's desire for authenticity of the casting of Paul Ososki (Billy) as a profoundly deaf actor and of casting Lisa Lehnen (Sylvia) a ASL interpreter: http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/performing-arts/article22930440.html . 

* The best translation? Having Paul Walker gesture a blow job, and watching the interpreters interpret it again. Hilarious. The interpreters were just as expressive and on point as the actors, and they become part of the show themselves.

Cock - The Unicorn Theatre (the play that must not be named)

This play is hard to explain. (Pun intended). Basically, John has a long term boyfriend, M, and goes out with a woman, W. John is confused about his feelings and sexuality. And M's dad, F, puts in his two cents which doesn't help. All played out without props, just a set laid out like a boxing ring and four actors. 

90 minutes. No intermission. A ding of a bell signaling the next movement. Actors spitting on each other but never touching at all. Circling. Everyone in gray but the love interest in red like a red flag at a bull fight. Amazing. Dizzying. 

The writing in this is like being dropped in the middle of a conversation where you want to interject by yelling at everyone involved. It's beyond snappy. Everyone was brilliant, but Zachary Andrews (M) was something incandescent. He had to be somewhat of a bastard, but likable at the same time. He had to be angry but testy, fed up but not willing to stop. Everything circled around him, and if that actor hadn't been magnificent, this show wouldn't have worked. Everything plays to him. 

John, played by Jacob Aaron Cullum, is written as milk toast, as someone with no spine and no direction. That is difficult to play as an actor without coming across as low energy. It took a while to catch what was happening, and then I saw John with (W) Molly Denninghoff. John was himself. But sweet. Communicative. With new mannerisms but the same confused core. It's easy to downplay Jacob's brilliance in light of Zachary but he did exactly what he needed to do. We hate John because he won't make up his mind. His silence is infuriating. 

The end scene, the farce-like dinner party, is so brilliant. It's written well, and the fight between (F), Matthew Rapport, and (W) Molly Denninghoff is controlled and then on fire. 

The whole show is angry, seething, a bit of sweet, but quite a ride. Not for the faint of heart. Well done. 

National New Play Network Wine Tasting

Tonight I met Nan from the National New Play Network. I got to chat with her just a bit. She told all of us that by supporting new works that we aren't patrons - we are artists that are influencing the Anerican canon of theatre works that will go on to influence the world. 

She asked me what I did. I told her I was a playwright, and she told me for sure I need to get my work on the new play exchange. For $10 year a playwright can submit their work and Theatres can search by topic, number of actors, length and pick a play from the new play database. She said 5 plays have already been produced from this database. 

I met 3 new playwrights - we all sat at the same table - and they've put their works into the Fringe festival. Tonight was amazing. I'm so lucky. 

A Year of Theatre

March of 2014 was a period of deep reflection on what I wanted, and what was needed to make sure I stayed healthy. I had lived a long time, 13 years, doing what I was supposed to do. Working, many times two jobs. We never had enough money, or enough time. Life was going at a breakneck pace and the things I loved, theatre and writing, were put away as childish hobbies in the pursuit of real life. 

Then real life hits you like a freight train. Over and over I said that I felt as if I were a square peg trying to force myself into a round hole, and if you keep banging it long enough, it will crack. No matter how hard you try to make it work, it won't. You will force and force and you'll just end up miserable. 

At 37 I decided I'd rather be a terrible playwright than a really good (insert anything else). 

In March of 2014 I was very sick, sitting by myself, being asked what would make me happy. What would make me content. What had contributed to the crack of the square peg. I had to go through a series of exercises, painting, drawing and writing what I wanted my life to look like. 

I made a watercolor of Harbach theatre in Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, I wrote journal entry after journal entry about what I would regret not doing, and I drew a diagram and to-do list on how to go about fixing the cracks. 

I'm not saying mental health is easy, that one can just wave a magic wand and it all go away. There is a lot of work to be done when facing a mental illness. It's real, it's dangerous, and it has to be dealt with. Every day, every minute. Any weapon at your disposal must be utilized. One of my weapons is writing. 

In looking back at this blog, it is a time capsule of what I've done in one year. I've written 4 plays. I've attended more shows this year than I did the past 13. I held play writing workshops. I went on vacation. I got a new job. 

I couldn't have done all these changes without my family's support. I always have house responsibilities, but every spare minute I have is spent writing or attending a theatre production. 

How does it feel to be a terrible playwright? 

Pretty damn amazing. 

Women Playing Hamlet - Part 2

I cannot get over Women Playing Hamlet at The Unicorn. I was at work the other day and I started laughing, and my coworker asked what was going on. I just mentioned I was laughing about the show that I'd seen.

The week before.

This show was everything a theatre production should be. Funny, well executed, a set and costumes that seamlessly worked to convey the entire message. Every actress (yes, all women!) was on point for every minute of the play. The audience was engaged the entire time.

The actresses: Katie Karel, Kathleen Warfel, Cathy Barnett, and Meredith Wolfe were dazzling as they jumped from character to character or from scene to scene. It was breathtaking to watch. 

The men's roles were played by these women, but it was not performed in a caricature fashion. Underneath the humor was a story of heart and an examination choices we must face as artists. Do we go for the difficult choice, to play Hamlet? Or do we go to the sure thing, to act on a daytime Soap?

You do have one easy choice. Whether or not to see this show. You have to go. There are still nights that are 'pay what you can' that are open on the calendar, so there is no excuse.

May your Hamlet handbag fall apart in the wash and your drama teacher drown you in scarves if you miss this show.